ATTACK IN ANGOLA RISKED CLOUD OF POISON GAS

Reuters

Published: December 13, 1981

LUANDA, Angola, Dec. 12—
Had the recent attack against Angola's sole oil refinery gone according to plan, a gigantic explosion would not only have devastated part of Luanda but could also have released a cloud of poisonous gas over the capital.

The full extent of the near disaster is just beginning to emerge as a column of black smoke still rises from the refinery on the outskirts of this city of 875,000 people.

The attack on Nov. 30 - said by the Angolans to have been carried out by mercenaries in the pay of South Africa - damaged only fuel tanks and some pipelines and did not seriously affect the refining complex itself, according to Western oil sources here.

The Angolan Government said the sabotage squad had been intended to blow up the whole refinery. ''Had that happened,'' a Western diplomat said, ''there is no doubt that the explosion would have destroyed residential areas that are not all that far from the refinery and some of the ships in the harbor would probably also have been hit.'' Danger of Poison Cloud

A senior Western oil company official who was in close touch with the management of the refinery said the most dangerous of the fires came within 30 yards of a huge stock of tetraethyl lead, a highly toxic additive used to raise the octane of gasoline.

''The Angolan workers of the refinery showed exceptional courage, rolling awat the thousands of barrels in which the additive was stocked,'' one Western oil official said. ''They could only do so a little at a time because the heat was so great. But for them, an enormous poison cloud could have enveloped Luanda had the wind blown the wrong way.''

The South African-backed National Union for the Total Independence of Angola took responsibility for the raid. Western diplomats who examined evidence presented by the Angolan authorities the day after the raid say they believe the National Union, using white mercenaries, did carry out the attack.

A captured notebook exhibited by the Angolans contained information about the layout of the refinery written in both English and Afrikaans, according to one of the Western diplomats who examined it. Abandoned Equipment Is Crude

The main reason Western diplomats do not believe the attack was the direct work of South African soldiers - as Angola at one point implied - is that the material used was too crude. The mines, on display here, appear to be less sophisticated than others available on the market.

One of the attackers was blown up while laying a mine. His mangled but unmistakably white foot was put on display by the Angolan authorities. It was probably because of the explosion in which he died that his colleagues fled, leaving much of their equipment behind.

The Belgian oil company Petrofina, which has a controlling interest in the refinery, said it would take at least two months to restore production.

According to Westerners in the oil business, the refinery fire left the Angolans with only a two weeks' supply of gasoline, three weeks' worth of jet fuel and very little diesel fuel. But the Western oil companies that handle most of Angola's oil production helped obtain emergency supplies.

The Angolans have said that one goal of the attackers was to put the Angolan Army in the predicament of facing South African troops in the south of the country without oil. South African forces have made forays into Angola to hit bases of the South-West Africa People's Organization, whose guerrillas have fought South Africa's rule of Namibia for 15 years.